Z-Race

Z-Race is a futuristic racing VR video game. This arcade is a spiritual successor to Wipeout series. Players control futuristic anti-gravity ships that hover above the ground and can fly as super-fast speeds. You race through chic sci-fi scenarios and twisting tracks, collect nitro boosts and coins, avoid energy traps and obstacles, try to be the first to cross the finish line and try to get the best time. New ships and track become available during playthrough. The better you do, the more you will unlock. Upgrade your ships speed, agility, and nitro capacity via in-game currency. + Great graphics, design, effects. + Cool music. + Dynamic adrenaline-fueled gameplay. + Mind-blowing speed. + Simple controls. Move the ship with your hands. + Asynchronous multiplayer. Compete with the shadows of other players. + Upgrades and unlockable content. + Global leaderboards. + No motion sickness effect. - No first-person (cockpit) view. This is a fun arcade racer where speed is the name of the game. Z-Race looks really good. Those who loved the WipEout series should definitely take a closer look at Z-Race, because there is almost no games of this kind left.

Ok where do I start off at. Well I brought the game yesterday thinking it would finally be an up to date VR version of whipeout or at least similar to it. I already own Redout (decant) and Grip (very good) so I thought this game would be a step up with better graphics. Where I went wrong was ignoring the labeled hand held game warning that the maker inserted in the description, thinking it must mean, I don't know, that you get hands on feeling of driving in the future. Wrong!!!! I means what it is, you control it with your hands. To put it in actuality, the game feels more like flying a puppet plane than actually racing, and to make matter even worse its not calibrated correctly so your head tends to clip out above the ceiling of the tracks, making you feel like, well the opposite of immersive. My only hope for this game is that the makers come to their senses, ditching behind their weird Muppet fetish and make a patch that makes this a normal third person racer similar to Grip. But in actuality I think they are proud of the uniqueness of this crap and will try to market it as revolutionary! My advice is to stay away from the comments here (they sound like shills), forget the screen shots and videos (they make the game seem decant) and imagine playing with a toy puppet flying racer that's stuck to your hand, and tell me if that sounds like any fun.

This is a really fun, well done VR Racing game. I prefer being in the driver seat and usually avoid 3rd person, this one being the exception. The ship design is sleek and very "wipeout", as are the tunnel style stages. (the game is not completely tunnels btw sometimes you get a little open space between tunnels) Though I feel that it sort of ends there with the comparison. If you have ever seen the Dis movie "Flight of the Navigator" piloting here seems similar. The ship was flown by 2 domed pads that floated on arms to the sides of the pilot. To roll left (slight turn) you "roll" your dominant hand left and vice versa. Your yaw can also be used to turn but will cause you to slow/drag, same for pitch (up/down). Basically you fly as if your hand is the ship. No external controller or flight stick/HOTAS is used for this. Typically being a first person player I have noted that I tend to keep my dominant hand to the center, of the top of my chest, close to my body (like a chicken wing) and find better reaction and control here. It's also a little like having your head on top of your ship. Can this be played seated? My opinion is somewhat. A lot of courses will require you to actually turn left, right, up, or down, (diagonally at time) I recommend standing so that you can be best positioned to make these turns. Most of the movements made will be slight to avoid tunnel hazards, the more extreme the turn of your ship the more speed you lose. I do not get motion sickness from VR but I can see how the speed could cause vertigo for some that haven't toughed their VR legs. Caution advised but not nearly as bad as some games. On a side note don't get greedy until you're comfortable the boosts in the rotating floating circles are not worth hitting the hazard behind it. Highly recommended mainly because the racing is fun, fast, and novel. Hoping to see good things in the future.

This will probably be the nicest negative review I'll ever give. While definitely stylish, pretty, and high octane; while it feels to play great even at high speeds; and while it actually probably one of the smoothest VR games I've seen, I, personally, am not a fan of having a virtual ship "strapped" to my wrist and the race consists of me steering as if I'm playing "airplane" like when you have your hand out the car window while driving down the street. I was kind of skeptical after I read that this was 3rd person only, but I need a better steering option than this. It's NOT a bad game. Just not for me and I'm refunding for now. I wish the devs luck with the product, though. I will be keeping this on my follow list to see if any updates give us more options for steering. If they do, I will more than likely re-purchase the game, because stylistically, this is beautiful

Theres a few things i want to note My first impression from before early access was this was to be something similar to Redout which is one of my favorite VR racing games. I play a lot of racing sims with racing wheels and joysticks, and I am the owner and lead developer at Piece by Piece XR Development where I develop VR-focused cockpit games giving me a strong understanding of cockpits, movement, and ergonomics for VR users. The first note from me is to avoid palmar deviation, unfortunately, z-race focuses on a control motion that causes palmar deviation through the primary control method. Lifting your chosen hand up in front of you while rotating your hand 90 degrees inward becomes uncomfortable very quickly. After a couple of restarts, I could not get it to correct to the designed ergonomics of the controller of thumb vertical, so I have to assume this was by design. This made my arm both tired very quickly and became uncomfortable very quickly. After only 20ish minutes I was not able to continue playing as there was a significant amount of discomfort. The second note, I understand the purpose of holding the car in your chosen hand and moving it in the direction you want to go was to help reduce motion sickness, I work in VR daily and I do not experience motion sickness in the slightest, however, my significant other is susceptible to motion sickness but not tremendously sensitive to it. I'd place them in the average/new VR user space. My point for this is to express that they were able to play z-race for a maximum of 30 seconds before pulling the headset off and having to cool off for 10 minutes. An issue that was not had with redouts in cockpit view. My third note which is purely opinion, I would have strongly preferred the approach of being inside the cockpit, camera attached to the desired ship, or at least having control over the ship via virtual joysticks(similar to no man’s sky), gamepad (similar to redout), or controller thumb-stick support(same as gamepad but mapped to VR controllers). I strongly feel that not approaching one or more of these leaves a significant amount of the audience of racing sim enthusiasts behind. I understand the choice made, however personally and professionally I would suggest one of the other approaches as a potential option. In its current state, of course, being early access I understand limiting what's provided. However, there is no mention of other options for the future of the game. If these were to be added I’d happily buy the game again, however, as it is currently I will be refunding it as I felt tremendous discomfort and I just am not interested in racing in this way. I wish you wish you guys nothing but the best with your game, and i hope this review finds you well. This game absolutely has a lot of potential and i will be keeping an eye on it for the future updates encase these types of features are added.

Problems with Windows mixed reality. really wanted to play it, but unfortunately there is no way to adjust the controllers

This was surprisingly awesome. It's not clear from the videos, but you control your ship like you are holding a toy and flying it through the tracks. Gameplay is instinctive and fun! Super smooth. The first track is oddly the hardest I've played so far, so don't get discouraged if you have a harder time with it. Highly recommend.

Really did not like this game. As it is a VR Title I thought that it was going to be a sim like game. Totally did not like that it is 3rd person and that the racing ship is stuck to your hand. Also it is stuck to your hand (in my personal opinion) at an uncomfortable angle which caused me wrist pain within a few minutes. Definitely NOT the new generation of racing in my opinion, puppetry yes, racing no. Utterly awful experience. If you like racing sims this is NOT that.

I'm kinda disappointed, i thought that i will ride the vehicle, not to move my hand to it to move the game apperantly is kinda good but i will never play it again

I think it's a surprisingly fun game that I wasn't expecting to enjoy very much. It is also getting cockpit view soon which I can't wait for. The only negative I have is that you hold your hand sideways when you keep your arm straight which makes your arm ache after a very short time.